This invention relates to directory services. More particularly, this invention relates to a directory service which provides the communication addresses of individuals associated with numerous different institutions, and which can be accessed via more than one communication channel.
Due to the rapid growth in on-line and wireless technology, many individuals today (especially white-collar professionals) can be reached at numerous communications addresses. An individual's communication addresses may include a business telephone number, a home telephone number, a fax number, a cellular telephone number, a pager number, a personal reach service number, an e-mail address, a home page URL, a personal communications service (PCS) number, and a secretary/reach telephone number.
Obtaining this information for a particular individual can be difficult and time consuming. Often, several sources must be consulted before the desired information is tracked down, forcing one to make repeated attempts to locate the information. This can be time consuming and potentially costly, especially if the person is far away or in another country. Sometimes the information appears on business cards, but one often does not have the necessary business card at-hand when attempting to reach a person. Furthermore, the number of ways to reach someone has become so large that business cards have become cumbersome, awkward, unattractive, and confusing.
Currently, there is no centralized directory service which provides a person's numerous communications addresses. Furthermore, there is no centralized directory service which provides all of the communication addresses of individuals associated with different companies. The list of phone numbers contained in local "white pages" directories is typically limited to home and front-desk business numbers. Some corporations and universities maintain on-line directories which are accessible via the internet. However, these directories provide limited information such as a primary telephone number and e-mail address. Some companies, such as AT&T, maintain internal directories which can only be accessed by employees. AT&T's internal directory provides the telephone number, FAX number, e-mail address, and mailing address of certain individuals associated with AT&T, among other information such as company organizational information and the individual's work location and room number.
Looking for the communication addresses of individuals associated with different companies using on-line directories maintained by corporations and other institutions can be time consuming for several reasons. First, one has to determine the e-mail address of the particular institution where the desired information resides. Second, such directories may not have the particular communication address one is looking for. Third, one is required to access a separate on-line directory for each company, which can be tedious and time consuming when searching for the numbers of several individuals employed at different companies.
In view of these and other drawbacks of current directory services, it is an object of this invention to provide a directory service that enables a user to obtain from a centralized location the communication addresses of individuals from numerous different institutions.
It is a more particular object of this invention to provide a directory service which provides all of the communication addresses of an individual in a centralized location.
It is a still more particular object of this invention to provide a directory service which provides supplemental information in addition to an individual's communications addresses.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a directory which can be accessed via numerous communication channels.